October 28, 2005 - Fairfield 3 Rider 1

• Box Score

October 28, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Women’s College Volleyball

Fairfield University 3, Rider University 1

FAIRFIELD, Conn.--When you have a healthy heart, the other injuries don’t matter.  Beset by injuries all season, the Broncs lost a heart breaker at Fairfield on Friday night.

Rider (8-16) fell 22-30, 27-30, 31-29, 32-34 to the Stags, dropping to 0-4 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

“The match was very close until the end,” said head coach Emily Ahlquist who is in her seventh season.  “The matches went so long, we ran out of allowable subs twice in the four games.  One point here, one point there, either team could have won tonight.”

The length of the match (just under two hours) and the injury bug didn’t dampen the spirits of defensive specialist Nastasja Avramovic (Philadelphia, Pa./Northeast) who recorded 22 digs for Rider.  “That was a good match, hard fought and we never lost faith,” said the 5'7" sophomore.  “The biggest problem we had was that we have to execute with a higher level of intensity, from game one and point one and play to our potential, instead of a turning it on a few points into each game.”

Also for Rider senior Stefanie Lombardo (New Castle, Pa./Laurel) [groin injury] had 19 kills, 19 digs and two service aces.

Senior Embrey Minor (Davidsonville, Md./Bowie) [neck injury] added 30 assists with junior Megan Smith (Webster, N.Y./Webster) [shoulder injury] adding three blocks.

“We are a bunch of walking wounded,” added Ahlquist who has ten players on 2005 squad.  “I think we have one healthy player out of the ten, everyone has some type of nagging injury and we still almost won.  I am very happy with our intensity and our effort, it was our best effort in over three weeks.”

With the injuries to seemingly everyone on the roster, one might think it is hard to get up, physically out of bed and mentally for the match.

“Before the games [and after] are rough,” said Avramovic who is herself nursing a turned ankle.  “But during the matches, adrenalin takes over and we just dive all over the place.  We are willing to sacrifice as a team and try to overcome the injuries.”

With the top four teams in the MAAC qualifying for the playoffs, an 0-4 league start may seem to put Rider on life support in its quest for the playoffs for the second straight season but the players have no doubt that their heart will stay healthy and the wins will come.

“We had to win three straight last season to make the playoffs and the way the league is this year, anything can happen,” added Ahlquist.

“We are mentally strong, despite the conference record,” added Avramovic.  “Our outlook for the rest of the season hasn’t changed.  We are going to take one point at a time, one game at a time and one match at a time and we are going to have fun doing it.  Each match we have left is winnable and we have total belief in each other and we have no doubts playing together and we owe it to our seniors to play extra hard and play our hearts out.”

With not many other available body parts, a healthy heart isn’t a bad thing to have going into the MAAC match at Iona Monday night.

-RU-